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Norway Fund Cuts Seven Companies

Norway's pension fund has sold the securities it held in seven companies, worth almost $500 million, because of the companies presumed involvement in the production of nuclear weapons.

The sales, announced yesterday, came after the advisory council on ethics for Norway's government pension fund, until recently known as the petroleum fund, recommended dropping the companies. They are BAE Systems of Britain; Boeing, Honeywell International, Northrop Grumman and United Technologies of the United States; Finmeccanica of Italy; and Safran of France.

Only Northrop Grumman confirmed its part in making components for nuclear arms after a request for information from Norway's central bank, which administers the fund. Other companies either did not respond, or declined to comment, the finance ministry said, but their involvement was verified from their own news releases, Web sites or other sources like Jane's Information Group, the publisher of military and security information.

The ministry of finance said the total investment shifted was 3.3 billion kroner, or about $492 million. Norway's central bank was ordered on Oct. 11 to complete the sales by the end of 2005. The fund as a whole, which saves revenue from the country's vast oil sales, held more than $200 billion as of December and is one of Europe's largest.

The fund's ethics council also considered whether to exclude Total, the French oil company, following accusations by nongovernmental organizations that the company was complicit in human rights violations in Burma during the construction of a pipeline in the mid-1990's. The fund, however, said its guidelines were forward-looking and found no reason to suspect Total of current violations, and therefore did not exclude it.

It was the second time this week that a government agency recommended a reallocation of investments on ethical grounds. Since the council's creation in November 2004, for example, it has also recommended the exclusion of a manufacturer of land mines and seven companies involved in making cluster bombs.